Melanie Brusseler

Climate and biospheric stabilization necessitates democratizing investment and economic coordination—at planetary scale. How might we do this?

As Senior Researcher at Common Wealth, I work on technical and political economy analysis of production and social coordination systems—and their transformation—for decarbonization. In particular, I work to advance democratic ownership and democratic planning—the “green mixed-economy”—as essential.

I live in the US and focus on green planning in trans-Atlantic context. But I am a student of global political economy and ultimately aspire to the realization of a planetary cooperative commonwealth. The topics I research, write on, and design policy towards could be categorized as industrial policy or strategy, economic planning, macrofinance, or economic governance and management. I think by engaging with history, political, economic, and social theory, the flux of real world events, and conversations with others.

Like many who came of age post-08, I have spent quite a bit of time trying to understand money, finance, investment, and how each relate to the state. I am currently quite eager to widen and deepen my sectoral knowledge—particularly that of energy systems.

Previously, I researched (global) macrofinance, economic management, and industrial planning policy for decarbonization at E3G. There, I wrote a bi-weekly newsletter on green macrofinance and transition planning. I began my career as a researcher in political economy as Gar Alperovitz’s research assistant at the Democracy Collaborative’s Next System Project. There, I supported Alperovitz’s draft manuscript of political economic theory “The Next System,” which advances his model of a Pluralist Commonwealth, centered on (multiscaler and decentralized) democratic ownership and planning.

I studied global political economy at Penn State and Columbia. But I’ve learned the most from lurking onTwitter.

Melanie Brusseler

Sample Publications

Discussions and Interviews